printer friendly pageSOC 258C: Using Data to Describe the World: Descriptive Social Science Research Techniques (EDUC 430C)
This course focuses on the skills needed to conduct theoretically-informed and policy-relevant descriptive social science. Students read recent examples of rigorous descriptive quantitative research that exemplifies the use of data to describe important phenomena related to educational and social inequality. The course will help develop skills necessary to conceptualize, operationalize, and communicate descriptive research, including techniques related to measurement and measurement error, data harmonization, data reduction, and visualization. Students develop a descriptive project during the course. Prerequisite: satisfactory completion of a course in multivariate regression.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 10 units total)
SOC 260: Formal Organizations (SOC 160)
(Graduate students register for 260.) Organizations are ubiquitous: they educate us, manage our finances, and structure our daily routines. They also distribute resources, status, and opportunities. This course will explore the role of formal organizations in contemporary social life, and their consequences for individuals. Drawing on a range of research in the social sciences and examples from the real world, we will examine several topics, including: the origins of organizations, how decisions are made in organizations, why some organizations survive while others die, incentives and employment relationships, how social networks shape social stratification, and what kinds of organizational policies promote diversity.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
Instructors:
Furuta, J. (PI)
SOC 262: The Social Regulation of Markets (SOC 162)
Social and political forces that shape market outcomes. The emergence and creation of markets, how markets go wrong, and the roles of government and society in structuring market exchange. Applied topics include development, inequality, globalization, and economic meltdown. Preference to Sociology majors and Sociology coterm students.
Last offered: Spring 2018
SOC 267A: Asia-Pacific Transformation (INTLPOL 244D, SOC 167A)
Post-WW II transformation in the Asia-Pacific region, with focus on the ascent of Japan, the development of newly industrialized capitalist countries (S. Korea and Taiwan), the emergence of socialist states (China and N. Korea), and the changing relationship between the U.S. and these countries.
Last offered: Winter 2020
SOC 268: Global Organizations: The Matrix of Change (PUBLPOL 168, PUBLPOL 268, SOC 168)
We learn how to apply analytical tools from the social sciences to organizations, and study how to design effective organizations and projects within and across institutional settings. A variety of organizations are included and how they deal with strategy changes and accountability. The theme for this year's class is on accountability of non-profit organizations such as Doctors Without Borders, The International Rescue Committee and The Red Cross. Recommended:
FINANCE 377, MS&E 180,
SOC 160,
ECON 149, or
MGTECON 330.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
Instructors:
Meyersson Milgrom, E. (PI)
SOC 270: Classics of Modern Social Theory (SOC 170)
(Graduate students register for 270). Sociologists seek to understand how society works, specifically: how social life is organized, changed, and maintained. Sociological theory provides hypotheses for explaining social life. All empirical research in sociology is enriched by, and has some basis in, sociological theories. This course introduces students to the earliest sociological theories and the thinkers who developed them. Specifically, we will discuss the work of W.E.B. Du Bois, Emile Durkheim, Max Weber, and Karl Marx. We will compare and contrast how they thought about important modern-day social realities such as capitalism, racism, crime, religion, and social cohesion. We will consider how these early theories and thinkers influence the way sociologists think about and study the social world today.
Terms: Aut, Win
| Units: 4
SOC 273: Gender and Higher Education: National and International Perspectives (EDUC 173, EDUC 273, FEMGEN 173, SOC 173)
This course examines the ways in which higher education structures and policies interact with gender, gender identity, and other characteristics in the United States, around the world, and over time. Attention is paid to how changes in those structures and policies relate to access to, experiences in, and outcomes of higher education by gender. Students can expect to gain an understanding of theories and perspectives from the social sciences relevant to an understanding of the role of higher education in relation to structures of gender differentiation and hierarchy. Topics include undergraduate and graduate education; identity and sexuality; gender and science; gender and faculty; and feminist scholarship and pedagogy.
Last offered: Spring 2019
SOC 274: Social Computing (CS 278, SOC 174)
Today we interact with our friends and enemies, our team partners and romantic partners, and our organizations and societies, all through computational systems. How do we design these social computing systems to be effective and responsible? This course covers design patterns for social computing systems and the foundational ideas that underpin them. Students will engage in the creation of new computationally-mediated social environments. Course available for 3-4 units; students enrolling in the 4-unit option will conduct deeper engagement with the topic via additional readings and discussions.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-4
Instructors:
Bernstein, M. (PI)
;
Cooper, M. (PI)
;
Gordon, M. (PI)
...
more instructors for SOC 274 »
Instructors:
Bernstein, M. (PI)
;
Cooper, M. (PI)
;
Gordon, M. (PI)
;
Hu, X. (PI)
;
Huhn, M. (PI)
;
Kelley, C. (PI)
;
Romanos, A. (TA)
SOC 276: The Social Life of Neighborhoods (AFRICAAM 76B, CSRE 176B, SOC 176, URBANST 179)
How do neighborhoods come to be? How and why do they change? What is the role of power, money, race, immigration, segregation, culture, government, and other forces? In this course, students will interrogate these questions using literatures from sociology, geography, and political science, along with archival, observational, interview, and cartographic (GIS) methods. Students will work in small groups to create content (e.g., images, audio, and video) for a self-guided ¿neighborhood tour,¿ which will be added to a mobile app and/or website.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
Instructors:
Stuart, F. (PI)
;
Stephens, F. (TA)
SOC 278: Introduction to Computational Social Science (MS&E 231)
With a vast amount of data now collected on our online and offline actions -- from what we buy, to where we travel, to who we interact with -- we have an unprecedented opportunity to study complex social systems. This opportunity, however, comes with scientific, engineering, and ethical challenges. In this hands-on course, we develop ideas from computer science and statistics to address problems in sociology, economics, political science, and beyond. We cover techniques for collecting and parsing data, methods for large-scale machine learning, and principles for effectively communicating results. To see how these techniques are applied in practice, we discuss recent research findings in a variety of areas. Prerequisites: introductory course in applied statistics, and experience coding in R, Python, or another high-level language.
Last offered: Autumn 2019
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